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Dr. Everett Fox is Allen M. Glick Professor of Judaic and Biblical Studies and director of the Program in Jewish Studies at Clark University. His translations, featured in the notes and companion book to the CD Your Bountiful Light, draw the reader/listener closer to the meaning behind the texts while capturing the character of the original Hebrew and Aramaic.

A native of New York City, he received his undergraduate and graduate training at Brandeis University under Nahum Glatzer and taught at Boston University before coming to Clark in 1986.

He is the author of a number of studies on biblical narrative and translation, including The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Introduction, Commentary, and Notes (Schocken Books, 1995) and Give Us a King! A New Translation of the Book of Samuel (Schocken Books, 1999); and co-editor of Scripture and Translation, a collection of essays by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, with Lawrence Rosenwald (Indiana University Press, 1994).

Speaking Topics for Professor Fox

1. RETRANSLATING THE BIBLE
Almost all English Bible translations have the goal of bringing the text to the reader--offering a good read and smoothing over rough spots to make the text understandable. My translations of the Torah (1995) and Samuel (1999), in contrast, are designed to lead the reader back to the text and to echo the powerful and sensual rhythms of the Hebrew, without glossing over its difficulties and ambiguities. I will explore these differences through some examples from Moses' birth and early life as told in the opening chapters of Exodus.

2. HOW TO READ A BIBLICAL STORY
What are the assumptions we bring to biblical stories? And what are the assumptions biblical stories bring to the reader? Using the account of the Israelites and Egyptians at the Red (Reed) Sea (Ex. 14) to illustrate, we will look at how a text unfolds through sound--echoing what has come before and introducing its own key words to telegraph a powerful set of messages.

3. READING THE BIBLE ANEW
Is it possible to encounter a classic again and see something entirely new in it? Using a method pioneered by Buber and Rosenzweig, we will read the entertaining and profound story of Balaam (Num. 22-24) and see how listening to the rhythms of the Hebrew text--even in translation--can help us to be alert to the teachings embedded in it.

4. DECODING LEVITICUS
Animal sacrifice, the sprinkling of their blood, the classification of animals for eating, rules about menstruation, childbirth, and skin disease--these are all subjects of intense interest to the book of Leviticus. But they seem at best irrelevant in the modern world, and lead many people to skip the book when they study the Torah.
A closer look at Leviticus, however, using the tools of anthropology and comparative religion, reveals a deeply though-out system which has much to tell us about how Jews have survived through the ages. It will lead us to examine the role of order in human life, and also the issue of our distinctiveness as a people.

5. JACOB THE HEEL
Of all the Patriarchs in Genesis, Jacob is the one whose name (Israel) the Jewish people has come to bear. Yet he is a troubling figure, whose self-evaluation at the end of his life is a decidedly negative one. How can we get at who Jacob is, and what does the Bible seek to teach us about him and about Jewish destiny? We will read the key stories about him closely, listening for repeating words and themes.

6. THE SAMSON SAGA
The Bible's counterpart to Hercules, Samson is the most unlikely of its heroes: he breaks all rules and lives only for lust and revenge. We will try to make sense of his strange and entertaining story, which is built on a masterful structure of sounds and images. And we will see what Samson's story can tell us about ancient Israel's image of itself.

7. KING DAVID: SAINT OR SINNER?
The figure of David – giant killer, musician and poet, warrior, ladies’ man, political genius, failed father – is central to the Bible. How does the romantic hero and dynasty founder, the ancestor of the Messiah to both Jews and Christians, square with the all-too-human portrait that appears in the book of Samuel? How can we reconcile a man in whose name numerous political assassinations are carried out, and who himself commits adultery and murder, with the "sweet singer of Israel," author of Psalms and inspirational figure for generations of the pious?

8. DAVID AND BATHSHEBA
One of the great turning points in the Bible, this famous story describes the classic abuse of power committed by ancient Israel's most beloved and accomplished king. Focusing on the theme words in the story, we will follow the memorable confrontations between the characters that lead to multiple deaths, with more family disaster to come in the chapters ahead.

9. A BIBLE SCHOLAR IN HOLLYWOOD
What happens to a much-loved Bible story when it is remade into a full length animated film? And what happens to an academic and a practicing Jew who becomes a DreamWorks consultant? With examples from the film, I will share some of my experiences in a setting for which I wasn't prepared by my graduate training, as well as my reactions to the film's accomplishments and controversies.